“I knew the Chandlers were back there and that they’d be coming,” Ellithorpe said following his successful return to Boone. “When I got into lapped traffic, I tried to watch five cars ahead of me and then run where they weren’t.”

“I didn’t think I’d be able to get through the middle alive and get to the front,” he added, “but I got lucky.”

A Super Nationals record 63 Sport Compacts vied Tuesday and the 30-car main event field was represented by five states.

Mike Barten and Tyler Whalen advanced 14 positions to sixth and eighth, respectively. Ramsey Meyer moved up 11 places to seventh and hard charger John Whalen was a plus 16 to 10th.

Their story, however, was the same as for the drivers who started closer to the front: Nobody could catch Ellithorpe.

He caught up with the back of the pack by lap eight, led by most of a straightaway before halfway and had four lapped cars – and a lot of real estate – between his back bumper and Nathan Chan­dler by lap 16.

“It’s great to be able to win this again,” Ellithorpe said. “We watched races earlier in the week and made some changes after we ran second in our heat. Everything just worked out for us.”